Dec

Airing some grievances

Casting a glimpse at the sheets hanging on Low Plaza right now may trigger some residual memories of last spring’s SHOCC protests. But at today’s “speak out,” the medium is the message. Jennifer Oki, C’07 says Columbia sends dirty tablecloths from the faculty house and soiled towels from the EC hotel to get washed at New Haven’s New England Linen, a non-unionized company where the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found 23 health code violations.

Most laundry companies in New York are unionized, Oki said. “It won’t be a huge thing to get them to use another company.”

#6, your implication is incorrect. Faculty house and the EC hotel don't operate on tuition revenues. The university need not spend money on either-- I would imagine that both of them operate at a profit, otherwise they would not exist. Both the F house and EC Hotel could switch to a linen company that follows OSHA regulations, unionized or not, with little or no impact on their bottom line. To the extent that it would cost them more, these institutions could easily raise prices, as people are willing to pay a premium for them.

As to what Columbia gains: as an employer of union labor, it behooves the University to maintain goodwill from the unions, and the PR difference between using a sweatshop linen company and a unionized one is significant.